Former Japanese champion Mighty Inoue has died from a heart issue. He was 75 years old.
Sueo Inoue, who was born in Osaka Prefecture on April 12, 1949, trained in judo while in high school. He dropped judo to focus on his pro wrestling training and was later awarded an honorary diploma after achieving success as a wrestler.
Mighty Inoue made his debut with International Pro Wrestling on July 21, 1967. Like many young Japanese wrestlers, he began a long overseas tour from 1970, including a stop working for the fledgling Grand Prix Wrestling promotion run by Mad Dog and Paul Vachon.
Mighty Inoue in a Grand Prix Wrestling main event in Burlington, Vermont, on May 13, 1977.
After returning to Japan in 1972, he became contender in the IWA, eventually winning the IWA World Championship from Superstar Billy Graham. Although he lost the title six months later, he was active on the title front, teaming up with Animal Hamaguchi to win the IWA World Tag Team Championship. He also made his presence felt in the rivalry with All Japan Pro Wrestling.
“Inoue was a wrestling industry mainstay for over five decades, first as a wrestler then as a referee. Trained by the likes of Billy Robinson and Hiro Matsuda, Inoue had a technical style that enabled him to achieve longevity in a business filled with short careers. He achieved some notable early success in October 1974 when he won the IWA world title from Superstar Billy Graham,” noted SlamWrestling.net’s Japanese wrestling guru, Alex Podgorski.
In Stampede Wrestling in 1977, Inoue got a big push, including main events against Killer Tim Brooks. In April 1977, the Calgary Herald heralded Inoue as “one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling.”
Mighty Inoue in a Stampede Wrestling main event in Regina, Saskatchewan, on June 23, 1977.
After the collapse of International Pro Wrestling in 1981, he moved to All Japan. In All Japan, he moved to the junior front and teamed up with NWA Inter Junior, Ishikawa Keiji, and Ashura Hara to reign as Asian Tag Team Champions.
His signature move, the Somersault Drop, always got the crowd excited with the action before executing the move.
“Most of his career saw him wrestle for AJPW as a focal point of its junior heavyweight division,” said Podgorski. “Though not as flashy and famous as its New Japan counterpart, AJPW’s juniors did possess a certain maturity-based credibility that made them exciting all the same. Inoue was a major player in this division as he would have notable encounters with the likes of Joe Malenko, Dynamite Kid, and Masanobu Fuchi. He would also spend much of the period from 1990 to 1993 — which was the Tsuruta vs Misawa stable war period — as the fall guy for Tsuruta-gun.”
Superfan Roy Lucier stressed that fans shouldn’t remember Inoue for “doing comedy matches for All Japan” and that “he had an amazing career, once beating Superstar Graham for the IWA Heavyweight title back in 1974, and being a huge part of All Japan, going back to 1981.”
After retiring in June 1998, he became a referee. He then moved to NOAH and continued working as a referee, occasionally commentating on TV broadcasts. He distanced himself from the wrestling world after his retirement event as a referee at Korakuen Hall on May 22, 2010, but in recent years he has had the opportunity to make public appearances at talk events and other events.
Further details on his death on November 27, 2024, are not known at this time.
